Gingrich: Gas Prices Could 'Crater the Economy by August'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich dismissed any notion that he should drop out of the Republican presidential race on Sunday, vowing to win his home state of Georgia decisively on Super Tuesday and maintain criticism of his rivals.

"This is going to go on for a good while," Gingrich promised on the ABC’s This Week.

Mitt Romney is "not a very convincing frontrunner," who will get beaten by President Obama in the fall, Gingrich said. "The Romney strategy of outspending (rivals) isn't going to work against Obama," Gingrich said.

And Rick Santorum is "a labor union senator from Pennsylvania" who will fare poorly in right to work states in the South and West, Gingrich said. The former speaker said that his candidacy would soon be recognized by Republican voters as the real conservative alternative to Romney.

Gingrich doubled down on his promise to reduce gasoline prices to $2.50 a gallon, suggesting that his expansive plans to increase domestic energy production might even reduce the cost to $1.20 a gallon.

In another Sunday appearance, on CNN’s State of the Union, Gingrich said, "the price of gasoline is becoming a genuine crisis for many American families. If it continues to go higher, it will crater the economy by August."

But Obama adviser David Axelrod followed Gingrich on the ABC morning show, and said that Gingrich's promise of cheap gas was "magic fairy dust" that the American people, after forty years of watching how international markets determine the price of oil, would recognize as a desperate campaign tactic.

See all NJ’s Sunday show coverage | Get Sunday show coverage in your inbox